Gallic interpretation of ' Lady Chatterley' at Film Festival

Montreal, Canada, Aug 29 (UNI) Interesting films have been programmed, away from the various competition categories, particularly in the 'Hors Concours' (World Greats) section, of the ongoing World Film Festival (FFM), which began here on August 23.

"Lady Chatterley", directed by Pascale Ferran, is a Gallic interpretation of D.H. Lawrence's 1928 classic in the 'Hors Concours' section, which comprises around two dozen movies. The film had won five Cesar awards (the French equivalent of Oscars) this year, including the one for the Best Film.

Another European movie to have evoked considerable interest is "Los Borgia" (The Borgias). Directed by Antonio Hernandez, it is about the infamous, 15th-century Spanish-Italian family of that name. The clan included Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, who were children of a Pope, but were epitome of cruelty and decadence in their lives as they dominated the politics and society in Italy of those times.

In the same section, a Japanese film, "Dongjing Shenpan" deals with the famous post-World War-II, Tokyo Trials of the defeated Japanese Army and political leaders by the victorious Allied Powers.

The trial court comprised 11 international legal luminaries, including Judge Radha Binode Pal from India. The latter had given a dissenting opinion in which he had questioned the legality of those trials (a fact lauded by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on his recent visit to India).

A unique movie in "World Greats" section is "Farsh-e-Tran" from Iran. It deals with the theme of the Persian Carpet, an essential feature of Iranian art and culture. The two-hour film is the combined work of 15 well-known Iranian film-directors, who have interpreted that theme in their own respective ways. They include names like Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Rakshanbani Etemad, who had visited India in the past to attend I.F.F.I., the annual international filmfest (which had included their films in its programmes).

On another note, Montreal Film Festival despite its size, is a friendly event. None would find it more so than the sudama of the Cine-world, the short-film makers. Over the years, the Festival has been kind to them. This year too, it is showing a big collection of Documentaries and Short films, over 200 in number. Most of these are in two categories: "Documentaries of the World", and "Focus On World Cinema : Shorts". The latter, which has 91 short films, includes "Rewind", a 9-minute effort by Mumbai's Atul Taishete. There is also an 11-minute short, "Muntazir" from Pakistan, directed by Afia Nathaniel but with an Indian girl in the lead-role.

"Documentaries of the World", with lengths varying between 50-180 minutes, have a variety of themes. Canada's "Buried At Sea", directed by John Chisholm, exposes the hypocrisy of world powers by narrating how the Allies themselves had dumped massive amounts of chemical weapons in the sea after World War-II. Australia's "Feet Unbound" gives first-person accounts by some women survivors of the famous Long March of the Chinese Communist militia.

On the lighter side, there is the French-Belgian film, "Cabal in Kabul", an 86-minute account of how the two remaining Jews in Afghanistan live and squabble in Kabul's only synagogue. "This Is My Kingdom" (Swiss-French) relates how a French art-thief stole 240 art-works from as many as 170 museums and private-collections.

Fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor-turned-politician in USA, would be interested in a docu-pic on him, titled "Running With Arnold". The 72-minute movie traces his life from being an Austrian immigrant in USA, to name and fame via Hollywood, his entry into politics, and election as Governor of the key State of California.

UNI